SAN ANTONIO — Wrapping up a conference call with securities analysts Wednesday, Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. Chairman and CEO Dick Evans blamed various technical glitches that plagued the call on bad weather in Atlanta.

“You who are in bad weather,” Evans called out, “Texas is a great place to live, and Frost is the only place to bank down here. So I'd suggest you come our way.”

It was vintage Evans, who regularly shills for the Lone Star State — touting it as a bright spot in the U.S. economy.

That's because Cullen/Frost's Texas roots generally have served it well. Last quarter was no exception.

For the three months ended Dec. 31, the San Antonio-based parent of Frost Bank earned $60.6 million, or 99 cents a share — 2 cents above analysts' expectations. By comparison, it earned $60.2 million, or 97 cents a share, in the same period in 2012.

The results marked an upbeat end to what was an otherwise challenging year for Cullen/Frost. The company's net income fell to $231.1 million, or $3.80 a share, last year from $238 million, or $3.86 a share, in 2012.

The decline was “largely a function of the balance sheet not growing very much and the net-interest margin declining throughout the year,” said Brett Rabatin, an analyst with brokerage firm Sterne Agee in Nashville, Tenn.

Cullen/Frost's net-interest margin — a measure of the difference between what it earns in interest on loans and what it pays in interest on deposits — was 3.39 percent at the end of the year, down from 3.48 percent at the end 2012 and 3.76 percent in 2011.

Still, there were signs that give Evans optimism for 2014.

Loan requests were at their highest level in 2013, he said, and the bank had its highest volume of new loan commitments since 2008, when the Great Recession was in full swing.

Loans averaged $9.3 billion in the fourth quarter, up 5.4 percent from the same period in 2012.

“I am more positive than I have been,” Evans said in an interview. But “the caution and uncertainty is there. I'm positive that people are cautiously optimistic and starting to move forward with some expansion and maybe even an acquisition, and those kinds of things.”

He added, “We're only as good as our customers.”

Evans expects loan growth will begin to catch up with loan commitments. He noted that companies have been reluctant to tap larger amounts on their loan commitments and lines of credit. In real estate construction, for instance, companies are choosing to kick in more equity upfront instead of borrowing more, he said.

Meanwhile, Evans added, job growth in Texas is expected to return to 3 percent this year. It dipped to 2.5 percent last year after reaching 3.3 percent in 2012.

Some securities analysts who follow Cullen/Frost have expressed concerns that its growth prospects and profitability may stall because of the current interest rate environment.

Bloomberg shows only two analysts have a “buy” on Cullen/Frost's stock, while 10 have it rated a “sell.” Nine others have it rated a “hold.”

Sterne Agee's Rabatin has had Cullen/Frost rated “underperform,” which means it's expected to perform worse than the market return.

“Not because it's not a great bank,” he said. “We thought there'd be some relative underperformance given the headwinds.”

Frost is the largest regional bank based in San Antonio. It had $24.3 billion in assets at the end of the year, the highest in its history.

In August, Cullen/Frost announced that it would acquire Odessa-based WNB Bancshares Inc., which operates in the heart of the oil- and gas-producing Permian Basin in West Texas through subsidiary Western National Bank.

The deal was expected to close this month, but Cullen/Frost officials now say the closing likely will occur next quarter.

“The Western acquisition is going to be great for us, and we're really looking forward to getting it in,” Cullen/Frost Chief Financial Officer Phil Green said on the conference call with analysts.

WNB, with about $1.4 billion in assets, will be Frost's first acquisition since 2006.

Cullen/Frost's shares fell 86 cents to close at $72.74 Wednesday. The shares have been caught in the stock market downdraft since hitting a 52-week high of $76.42 on Jan. 22.